Why is the Arab world not democratic?
Today in Tunisia, and in all other Arab countries, there is no shortage of experts in democracy. Indeed, you will find those who focus on the fundamental meaning of democracy and related notions such as freedom, participation and equal rights. You will also find those who focus on the institutional changes necessary to establish to become a true democracy, such as independent justice, a new constitution and a functional parliament. Finally, there are those who call for change by civil society as the expression of a citizen democracy. These healthy and necessary discussions help us to understand the issues surrounding the establishment of a true democracy and to understand its different meanings. However, they do not tell us much about the factors that contribute to the creation, development and development of democracy. They can not, in any case, give answers for the whole region, because of the specificity of cultural, religious and economic experiences and the complexity of the historical context of each Arab country. I would like to contribute here to explain the deficit of democracy in the Arab countries and analyze certain myths and demystify certain hypotheses.
From 1990 to 1995, the world witnessed the birth of about 40 new democracies, bringing the total number of democratic countries to almost 117, or 60% of the total of independent countries. In 2010, this number reached 200, or nearly 88% of the total sovereign countries. Each region of the world, each continent, or ethnic group is represented in this group, except the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This absence is a flagrant anomaly in the phenomenon of democratic globalization. Is there, then, an Arab exception in the field of democratic expression and why are Arab countries still not a true democracy apart from the specific case of Lebanon?
The main common denominator of the Arab countries is that they are predominantly inhabited by Arab Muslims. Their inhabitants share common values and a homogeneous cultural and religious base, that of Arab-Muslim culture. Is it possible that this culture is the reason for the democratic deficit of the Arab countries? Another common factor that predominates in Arab countries is economic underdevelopment. So countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco or Yemen would not be democratic because they are not economically developed? Perhaps also being flooded with petro-dollars is also the cause of the lack of technological innovation and economic leadership in the Gulf monarchies.
I will try to show that the deficit of democracy in the Arab world can be explained first and foremost by the policies and the failing economic choices made by these countries and not by their culture or their religion. In order to join the ranks of democratic countries, the Arab countries have no choice but to work on the economic models they should focus on.
From 1990 to 1995, the world witnessed the birth of about 40 new democracies, bringing the total number of democratic countries to almost 117, or 60% of the total of independent countries. In 2010, this number reached 200, or nearly 88% of the total sovereign countries. Each region of the world, each continent, or ethnic group is represented in this group, except the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This absence is a flagrant anomaly in the phenomenon of democratic globalization. Is there, then, an Arab exception in the field of democratic expression and why are Arab countries still not a true democracy apart from the specific case of Lebanon?
The main common denominator of the Arab countries is that they are predominantly inhabited by Arab Muslims. Their inhabitants share common values and a homogeneous cultural and religious base, that of Arab-Muslim culture. Is it possible that this culture is the reason for the democratic deficit of the Arab countries? Another common factor that predominates in Arab countries is economic underdevelopment. So countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco or Yemen would not be democratic because they are not economically developed? Perhaps also being flooded with petro-dollars is also the cause of the lack of technological innovation and economic leadership in the Gulf monarchies.
I will try to show that the deficit of democracy in the Arab world can be explained first and foremost by the policies and the failing economic choices made by these countries and not by their culture or their religion. In order to join the ranks of democratic countries, the Arab countries have no choice but to work on the economic models they should focus on.
Culture and religion
When we compare the 16 Arab-Muslim countries with the other 29 Muslim but non-Arab countries (such as Bangladesh, Senegal, Turkey, Indonesia or Malaysia), we find that the second group has been able to ensure reasonable democratic rights To its populations. Of the 16 countries in the first group, only Lebanon can have such a claim. Moreover, with regard to the political elections, eight Muslim countries, also non-Arab countries, conducted free elections (apart from those carried out in Algeria in 1991). These observations enable us to affirm, even if it is not in a scientific way, that the Muslim religion is not the cause of the democratic deficit of the countries where it predominates. Other studies, such as the NGO Freedom House, have also concluded that Islam and democracy are not mutually exclusive.
What about culture? In our history of Arab and Muslim people, the idea of communities organized around representative governments is practically unknown, whereas non-Arab Muslim countries have experienced multiple experiences of organized political groups that are representative of the population.Can we then say that the Arabs have become accustomed to the autocracy and passive obedience of their rulers, as has been the case in Tunisia for the last 55 years? Why did this passive obedience remain so strong as to constitute an insurmountable obstacle to democracy in the Arab world, unlike the other non-Arab countries which were able to overcome it and adopt democratic principles?
Would it be possible to imagine that Arabs in general do not attach importance to democratic elections as a form of autonomous governance? This is not the case if the elections in the West Bank, Algeria and Kuwait are remembered. Almost 80 per cent of citizens of the age of election in these countries endorse democratic principles. Moreover, according to studies by the Arab Barometer conducted between 2005 and 2008, Arabs would only participate in a large number of elections if they believed their votes would be taken into account. In 2008, they ignored the elections in Egypt. The same scenario was repeated in Morocco and Tunisia, when citizens were convinced that the results of the political elections were determined in advance.
Economic and social policies
Can the well-being of a country be linked to its ability to engage and to achieve a democratic process?The levels of per capita income in 2009 show the following results. Kuwait is practically as rich as Norway, Bahrain is on an equal footing with France, Saudi Arabia with South Korea, Oman with Portugal and Lebanon with Costa Rica. Only Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Yemen are far behind but are not poorer in terms of per capita income than countries like India or Indonesia, where democracy operates despite a deficit Of general prosperity. And even when we consider the distribution of per capita income according to different social classes or regions, the same results are observed, that is, economic indicators are not worse in poor Arab countries Compared with non-Arab poor countries.
What about human development (education and health)? The ranking of most Arab countries is even lower in terms of human development than it is in terms of per capita income. Saudi Arabia is ranked 31 places lower and Algeria 19. Moreover, when comparing levels of human development, for example, those of the rich Gulf states are at best equivalent to those of Portugal and Of Hungary, while Saudi Arabia has the same rank as Bulgaria and Panama. If we turn to the Arab states with little or no oil exporters, we can see, for example, that Egypt has the same rank as Indonesia and Morocco the same rank as South Africa. In other words, a large number of democracies can be found at all levels of development, and using different criteria, on the same level as non-democratic Arab countries with which they share the same economic indicators .
So if the problem of democratic absence is not linked to the level of economic and social development, would it be due to the economic model favored by the Arab countries in question? In most Arab countries, the largest employers are the public institutions themselves. Governments can support a colossal over-staffing in their public bureaucracies by using mass recruitment as a check with which they buy social peace. Civil society is weak and co-opted by state-controlled bodies. The rules of operation of the private sector are distorted. There is no real entrepreneurialism because most people who do business do so for the public sector, are fed on public contracts or represent foreign companies.With such structures, there are few incentives to invest and create businesses with real risk taking.Indeed, why take risks while stable wages are available and that one can guarantee oneself profits without taking risks.
The majority of jobs based on government, the participation of individuals as members of large communities sharing values is discouraged. Similarly, the dynamics of innovation, an independent economy, competition, individual ownership and a strong work ethic do not exist. Yet in another era, the Western world was able to recover, improve and transmit the knowledge built by the Arab-Muslim civilization, which then held the leadership in science, medicine, astronomy and science Human and social rights. But nowadays, in the Arab countries, the entrepreneurial spirit is not encouraged, leading to an economic fabric consisting of small and medium-sized enterprises and a high rate of unemployment and underemployment. Egypt and Tunisia offer excellent examples of countries where it is extremely difficult to create businesses. Combined, these forces create an economic structure that discourages the creation of political and economic freedoms, which generally lead to the full adoption of democratic ideals. To speak the language of the computer world, we can say that all these concepts are applications that the Arab world can not download on its iphones and computers.
There is, therefore, a deficit in the design and implementation of economic policies that would explain the lack of democracy in the Arab world and is linked to how the government creates distortions in markets, incentives , Social classes and in the overall functioning of society.
Lotfi Saïbi
published 29/03/2011
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